Idea Transcript
R E S E A R C H Y STUD
IN
I N
F R A N C E
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
RESEARCH IN FRANCE The influence of French archaeology dates from the end of the nineteenth century, when France established archaeological and cultural missions in the Middle East, Asia, and other areas. Today, archaeologists from the Institut de France, the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (National Center for Scientific Research), and major French cultural and research institutions (the Louvre, the National Museum of Natural History, and the universities) participate in more than 150 French-led excavation projects abroad supported by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2001 the mission in Chad led by Michel Brunet of the University of Poitiers discovered the scull of a seven-millionyear-old hominid. In France, numerous archaeological sites of global renown, such as the caves of Lascaux and the Chauvet-Pont d’Arc grotto, remain the subject of intense study. institutions dedicated to archaeology, leading up to the merger in 2009 of the offices of archaeology, ethnology, and general resources of the Ministry of Culture and Communication.
The establishment of archaeology as a scientific discipline is often associated with Flavio Biondo and his fifteenth-century work on the ruins of ancient Rome (De Roma instaurata, 1444-1446). In France, modern archaeology is associated with JeanFrançois Champollion (1790 –1832), who deciphered the hieroglyphics and is considered the founder of Egyptology. Champollion established the chair in ancient Egyptian studies at the Collège de
France in 1831. The archaeology of historical periods was born in the Renaissance, along with philology and art history. Under the influence of André Leroi-Gourhan (1911-1986), prehistory branched off from the study of sediments to focus more on human civilizations. The archaeology of other periods evolved more slowly to include the study of techniques and civilizations. The twentieth century also saw the creation in France of
The policy of extending French influence internationally led to the creation of archaeological and cultural missions, particularly in the Middle East and Asia. Milestones included the founding of the French archaeological mission in Iran in 1890, the French archaeological delegation in Afghanistan in 1922, and French archaeological missions in China between 1907 and 1923, not to mention mixed teams formed with Ethiopia, Cambodia, and other countries. Schools and institutes created as a result of this policy included the École française d’Athènes (1846), the École française de Rome (1875), the École du Caire (1880, which became the Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire in 1898), the École française d’Extrême-Orient (1900), the Institut français d’archéologie d’Istanbul (1930), and the Institut français d’archéologie in Beirut (1946).
> The search for “material evidence” and traces Today all lands and all periods are the subject of archaeological research, including contemporary human activities. In all cases, the scientific approach borrows techniques and procedures from the experimental sciences. The essential difference between archaeology and history resides in the documents used. History exploits every conceivable category of document, including archaeological documents, whereas archaeology relies primarily on material evidence, manufactured objects (dwellings, vases, weapons, toys, and tombs, among many others) left behind by human beings, including waste products from the construction, consumption, maintenance, and cleaning of buildings and settlements. Traces are the second category: the signs of work, use, and wear. The third category is that of the relations between pieces of material evidence— spatial relations as they evolve over time and links between vestiges that aid in interpretation. Like history, archaeology aims to understand past human societies in all their aspects, but with the requirement of establishing relations between the remains studied and the great stages of technical evolution (Paleolithic, Neolithic, the metal ages, and so on).
> A scientific approach Archaeological research comprises four steps: prospecting for remains; excavation (“digs”) to isolate those remains from sediments; analysis to study and interpret the remains; and publication of the results to make them accessible to the scientific community and the general public.
> The archaeosciences The archaeosciences are the disciplines that apply various scientific techniques (physics, chemistry, mathematics, and the earth, space, natural, and life sciences) to the study of the past—among them archaeozoology, archaeobotany, chronoenvironmental and paleoenvironmental studies, archaeometry, bioarchaeology, and archaeomaterials research. Throughout France laboratories specializing in these themes operate under the aegis of Doctoral school in the exact and social sciences, as well as the humanities.
GREAT
RESEARCH BODIES
’INSTITUT NATIONAL DE RECHERCHES L ARCHÉOLOGIQUES PRÉVENTIVES (INRAP) Founded in 2002, INRAP (national institute for preventive archaeological research) is responsible for the identification and study of archaeological heritage threatened by landdevelopment operations. Each year it works with more than 700 partners in the public and private sectors. Diagnostics and digs are the centerpieces of INRAP’s scientific approach and research policy. Field work is complemented by research programs that enable the institute to situate each dig within its national and international context. More than half of France’s professional archaeologists are members of INRAP. The institute publishes more than 200 articles each year. INRAP works closely with the international scientific community. A member of the Europeae Archaeologiae Consilium, an association of public archaeological agencies in Europe, and of the European Association of Archaeologists, INRAP is also one of the founders of the European Planarch project, which connects France’s Nord–Picardie region with the archaeological offices of the neighboring countries (Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom). INRAP maintains international cooperative programs with Algeria, Iraq, Mauritania, and Cambodia, particularly for the training of rescue archaeologists. INRAP researchers participate in archaeological teams in Bangladesh, Lebanon, Mali, Morocco, Burma, the Sultanate of Oman, Djibouti, Cyprus, Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, China, Egypt, Italy, Mongolia, Palestine, Romania, Syria, Tunisia, and Ukraine. Work areas: > The Lower and Middle Paleolithic. > Territorial approaches to the Ancient and Middle Neolithic. > Use of the ground in the Bronze Age and at the outset of the Iron Age. > Rural land organization at the late first Iron Age and in the second Iron Age. > Rural buildings and field organization in antiquity. > Rural habitat and environment in the Upper Middle Ages. > Urban space and its components. > Recent data on the pre-Columbian and American Indian settlements of South America and the Caribbean.
RESEARCH IN THE UNIVERSITIES AND CNRS France’s universities and the CNRS cooperate closely within joint research units (UMR, unités mixtes de recherche) based throughout France (Amiens, Bordeaux, Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nancy, Paris, Poitiers, Toulouse). Most teams work on cross-cutting problems and broad geographic areas (the West, the Mediterranean world, etc.), but a number of cultural and historic specializations have been developed (Egyptology, pre-Columbian Americas, and so on).
ARCHAEOLOGY AT THE COLLÈGE DE FRANCE The first chair in archaeology at the Collège de France was established in 1831, with Jean-François Champollion as the incumbent. That chair became the chair in Egyptology in 1923. Today courses, seminars, and colloquia are given by six permanent chairs in various aspects of archaeology. > Turkish and Ottoman history > The civilization of the pharaohs: archaeology, philology, and history > History and civilization in Archimedes’s world and Alexander’s empire > Religion, institutions, and society in ancient Rome > Indo-Iranian languages and religions > Epigraphy and history of Greek cities > Biblical settings and environments The Collège de France also hosts joint research teams with the CNRS. >P roche-Orient, Caucase: langues, archéologie, cultures (UMR 7192): www.digitorient.com From 1987 to 2000, a dozen campaigns focused on the Second Millennium (the Amorite, Mitanian, and Middle Assyrian periods). Since 2005, the mission has been engaged in a new research program on the occupations of the Third Millennium. >C entre de Recherche sur les Civilisations de l’Asie Orientale (UMR 8155): www.crcao.fr Research at CRCAO spans a wide range of disciplines and periods from the most ancient to the contemporary. A large share of the center’s programs is devoted to the study of the religions, history, arts, literature, and thought of the classical period. The center’s researchers have a special interest in primary sources (manuscripts, inscriptions, and iconographic and archaeological documents).
Y G O L O E A H C FRENCH AR AROUND THE WORLD
INSTITUTS FRANÇAIS DE RECHERCHE À L’ÉTRANGER The IFRE network (French research institutes abroad) consists of 27 institutions and their branches operating in 34 countries. Several institutes carry out archaeological missions on every continent, from prehistory to late antiquity. http://www.ifre.fr
AFRICA The Centre français des études éthiopiennes (CFEE) in
Addis-Ababa is expanding its archaeological program in Ethiopia’s lake region (Ziway, Langano, Abijata) and is contributing to the development of the Late Stone Age sequence in East Africa. www.cfee.cnrs.fr
The Centre franco-égyptien d’étude des temples de Karnak (CFEETK) is responsible for research and conservation
work on the temple of Amun-Ra. The multidisciplinary approach involves Egyptologists, archaeologists, architects, restaurateurs, photographers, masons, artists and draftsmen, document specialists, and topographers— working together in Egypt’s largest religious complex. www.cfeetk.cnrs.fr
The Section française of the Direction des antiquités du Soudan (SFDAS) in Khartoum participated in salvage operations
in Nubia before the lake behind the Aswan Dam was filled, and in the inventory of sites in the southern Nile valley. It also conducted several protracted excavations, notably at funerary sites in Missiminia, El-Kadada, Kadruka, and El-Hobaji. Current work is concentrated on the urban Meroitic site of El-Hassan, with the uncovering of the Temple of Amun. www.sfdas.com
CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA The Institut français d’études andines (IFEA) in Lima is supporting several archaeological projects: Project Southern Peru (patterns of adaptation of groups of fisher-gatherers of the archaic period along the desert littoral of southern Peru in the Tacna region); the “Plataforma Uhle” Project of the International Moche Program (Mochica funeral customs and public architecture); ProjectManabí (Manteña culture and mound structures of the central coast of Ecuador); Project Choqek’iraw (late prehispanic history of the Middle Apurimac valley and links between the Chanka, Quechua, and Inca lands). www.ifeanet.org The Centre d’études mexicaines et centraméricaines (CEMCA) in Mexico City and Guatemala City. CEMCA’s branch in
Mexico has supported several archaeological projects in two major cultural areas: the Mayan region (Balamku, Xcalumkín, Rio Bec) and the mesoamerican west (Bajaras, Chupícuaro, Uacusecha). In Guatemala, CEMCA conducts archaeological projects in three large Pre-Columbian areas of the country (Pacific coast, highlands and lowlands). www.cemca.org.mx
THE NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST The Délégation archéologique française en Afghanistan (DAFA) in Kabul reopened in 2002. It performs archaeological
excavations as part of site salvage programs while also continuing its work on inventorying archaeological sites. Excavations are active in Bactria, Heart, Kabul, Wardak, and Jaji (Piyada), Bamiyan, and the Balkhab delta, among others. Special emphasis is placed on urban archaeology and study of the built environment. www.dafa.fr
The Institut français d’études anatoliennes (IFEA) in Istanbul has conducted programs in Claros, Horum Höyük, Sinope, Yazılıkaya, and Zeugma. Sites in Izmir, Kömürcü-Kaletepe in Létôon, Porsuk (Zeyve) Höyük in Pisidia, and Xanthos have also been explored. www.ifea-istanbul.net The Institut Français du Proche-Orient (IFPO) in Damascus is engaged in substantial archaeological work in four countries: Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq (since 2010, with excavations in Erbil). IFPO is a partner in multiple excavations and field explorations in Jordan (including Darih, Dosak, and Petra), Lebanon (Arqua, Cyrrhus, Tyr), and Syria (Apamée, Djaadé, Mari). Its program on Greek and Latin inscription in Syria has generated numerous publications. www.ifporient.org The Centre de Recherche Français à Jérusalem (CRJ)
in addition to its continuing focus on prehistory, studies more recent eras: the Bronze and Iron ages, classical antiquity, and the Byzantine and Crusade eras. Programs and excavation campaigns follow several axes: (i) from the hunter-gatherers to the first farmer-cultivators in the Levant; (ii) the first cycle of urbanization and decay in early Bronze Age; (iii) production and exchange in the Near East and in the eastern Mediterranean basin; (iv) cultural and political dialogue between the Muslim east and the medieval west at the time of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem; and (v) patterns of technical change in the southern Levant. www.crfj.org
The Centre français d’archéologie et de sciences sociales de Sanaa (CEFAS) carries out several missions under its program
on the archaeology and anthropology of southern Arabian societies from prehistory to the Islamic states: (i) the archaeological and epigraphical mission on the ancient kingdom of Qataban; (ii) Project Qalhat; (iii) the paleobiological and paleoanthropological mission in Tihama; (iv) the Jawf-Hadramawt mission; (v) the Najran mission; and (vi) the archaeological mission of Madain Saleh. www.cefas.com.ye
THE ÉCOLES FRANÇAISES École française d’Athènes: www.efa.gr Archaeological research is organized into four programs: > The epigraphical corpus: From Linear A to Christian inscriptions, all periods and categories are analyzed (Crete, Delphos, Boeotia, Thasos, Argos, Epirus). > Spatial archaeology: Research into ancient cities and kingdoms and exploration of the resulting sites. The sites of Malia, Thasos, Delos, Argos, and Philippi, and of the cities of the Mirabello mountains in Crète (Lato, Dreros, Anavlochos), Amathonte, Apollonia of Illyria, and Byllis. Elsewhere, the study of various lots of funerary furniture and fittings is being completed (in Argos, Thasos, Medeon, and, in Crete, in Malia, Dreros, and Olonte). > The archaeology of economic life: Exploration of buildings used for the manufacture, storage, and trade of products and staple grains, such as the Mu quarter in Malia, the stores of palace in Amathonte, the stores and warehouses of Delos, and the macellum (indoor market) of Thasos. Several numismatic collections have been analyzed in Argos, Philippi, Thasos, and Delos. > The archaeology of religious life: This program reflects recurrent themes of the school’s research program—sanctuaries and their organization, offerings, and proto- and mesobyzantine ecclesiastical buildings.
École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO): www.efeo.fr EFEO embraces Asia through multidisciplinary and comparative research linking archaeology, history, anthropology, philology, and religious studies. Its field of research extends from India to China and Japan, taking in all of Southeast Asia. EFEO missions must often come to grips with questions touching on the contemporary world.
École française de Rome: www.ecole-francaise.it Activities are structured around thematic programs: > Urban studies: The development of cities in the Italian peninsula, the originality of architectural models and urban experiences, analysis of archaeological and archival sources on urban life. > Law, power, society: Reflections on the forms of the exercise of power, the first Italian aristocracies, rights arising from republican and imperial Rome. > Italy and the Mediterranean: The study of exchanges and forms of interaction between Italy and the Mediterranean areas that surround it (economic exchanges, migratory movements, diffusion of cultural and legal models). > Territory, identity, and borders: The forces that characterize and impart structure and organization to an area, giving it coherence, identity, and limits. > Technical innovations and economic rhythms: The study of the labor relations and techniques, broadly conceived, that supported growth and modes of production, consumption, and transmission of goods. > The religious act: practices, rites, and behaviors: The religious, juxtaposed with places and social groups, affects the latter and provokes the formation of other spaces, profane or lay, that escape its reach or over which it attempts to exert its authority. > Knowledge: construction, transformation, and diffusion: Study of the constitution and diffusion of knowledge, especially ancient knowledge, and of the role of cultural “carriers” and the consequences of their activity on the state and geographic extent of knowledge. > Supporting archaeological work: Excavations of the river port of Aquileia and of the Celtic-Etruscan burial ground of Monterenzio Vecchio.
Institut français d’archéologie Orientale (IFAO): www.ifao.egnet.net Since its founding, IFAO has performed important archaeological work throughout Egypt—in the Nile valley, the delta, oases, the eastern and western deserts, the Sinai, the Red Sea, and Cairo. More than 20 sites are currently being excavated by IFAO teams.
USEFUL
LI N K S
• Archéo IDF - Réseau et ressources documentaires en Île-de-France www.archeo-idf.fr • Association des Professeurs d’Archéologie et d’Histoire de l’Art des Universités (APAHAU) www.apahau.org • Base Joconde - Portail des collections des musées de France www.culture.gouv.fr/documentation/joconde/fr • Base Mémoire-Archéo du ministère de la Culture www.culture.gouv.fr/documentation/memoire/accueilarcheo.htm • Bibliothèque numérique de l’INHA http://bibliotheque-numerique.inha.fr • Bulletin français de l’archéologie orientale (BIFAO) www.ifao.egnet.net/publications/catalogue • Collège de France www.college-de-france.fr • Comité Français d’Histoire de l’Art (CFHA) www.cfha-web.org • Comité International d’Histoire de l’Art (CIHA) www.esteticas.unam.mx/CIHA • Données en Archéologie, Préhistoire et Histoire sur le NEt (DAPHNE) www.daphne.cnrs.fr • Europeae Archaeologiae Consilium www.european-archaeological-council.org • European Association of Archaeologists www.e-a-a.org • Grands sites Archéologiques www.grands-sites-archeologiques.culture.fr • Musée Achéménide Virtuel et Interactif (MAVI) www.museum-achemenet.college-de-france.fr • Projet européen Planarch : aménagement du territoire et archéologie www.planarch.org • Instituts Français de Recherche à l’Etranger (IFRE) www.ifre.fr • Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives (INRAP) www.inrap.fr • Société Française d’Archéologie Classique www.sfac-info.fr
GENERAL
IN FO R M AT IO N
• Agency CampusFrance: www.campusfrance.org/en > Catalog of Doctoral Departments and programs: www.campusfrance.org/en > Find your program>Level Doctoral > CampusBourses, a directory of grants and scholarships: www.campusfrance.org/en >Finance your program • ABG, promoting career opportunities for young PhDs www.abg.fr • AERES, agency for the evaluation of research and higher education: www.aeres-evaluation.fr • ANDèS, national association for Science PhD: www.andes.asso.fr • ANRT, national agency for research and technology: www.anrt.asso.fr • CNRS, national center for scientific research: www.cnrs.fr • Directory of laboratories and researchers: www.cnrs.fr/fr/une/annuaires.htm • CNRS quarterly magazine (in English): www2.cnrs.fr/en/2.htm • EURAXESS, mobility for researchers in Europe: http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index_en.cfm • Fondation Alfred Kastler, hospitality and support for foreign researchers in France: www.fnak.fr • Ministry of Higher Education and Research: www.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr • Oséo Innovation, the French innovation agency: www.oseo.fr • Website for mobile European researchers in France: www.eurosfaire.prd.fr/mobility
CH
FRENCH RESEAR
PORTAL
archer www.campusfrance.org/en/rese
A UNIQUE, ONLINE-ACCESS INFORMATION POINT FOR LOCATING RESEARCH PROJECTS
UNDERSTANDING FRENCH RESEARCH > Understanding how PhDs operate in France; > Knowing how to start and finance a PhD; > Applying to international research programs (Hubert Curien Partnerships, Make Our Planet Great Again, etc.).
Point of entry for starting a PhD and the 270 doctoral schools organizing and supervising doctoral training. > Search by key words, regions, and disciplines; > Comprehensive information on doctoral schools: Research areas, criteria and points of contacts for admission, welcome mechanisms, proposed topics, current financing, international dimension, and points of contacts for associated research laboratories; > Access to fields offered by each doctoral schools. 16 doctoral schools in Archaeology http://doctorat.campusfrance.org Type «Archeologie» in the search field
PhD TOPICS, MASTER INTERNSHIPS, AND POST-DOCTORAL POSITIONS: > Offers financed through doctoral contracts, Industrial agreements for training through research (CIFRE), and specific offers devoted to programs financed by foreign governments; > Offers for Master internships for experience in a research laboratory; > Post-doctoral offers for work in French laboratories; > A detailed financing mechanism for each research offer (PhD topics, post-docs, and internships).
2018
DIRECTORY OF DOCTORAL SCHOOLS